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At OpenEd14, Sara Frank Bristow's research made a lot of waves in the OER family pool: OER powerhouse states have each had an OER champion to light the torches and ignite the OER vision for others. As a result, OER policies, movements, and evangelists have flourished (Bristow, 2014).

Bristow's work shed light on an opportunity gap. There seemed to be a need for K-12 OER champion identification and training in order to promote and spread the OER vision faster and farther. So, several attendees decided to put Bristow's OER Champion theory to the test this year and proposed a one day OER Champions Academy - Institute for Open Leadership.

We identified ten K-12 OER champions, named them as fellows and invited them to attend the Champions Academy. We identified three strands and designed workshops for each one:

- OER Bootcamp (preach)

- OER Building (teach)

- OER Policy (reach)

Next, we created advocacy torches/toolkits so the OER Champion Fellows can have an advocacy implementation plan for the 2015-2016 school year and a purpose to connect with fellows monthly. They will report back at Open Ed 2016 so we can track the OER Champion theory in practice.

Come and hear directly from the organizers and some of the Champions themselves.

I am the Director of Mountain Heights Academy (formerly the Open High School of Utah), an online 7-12 grade public charter school committed to building and sharing OER curricula. I'm passionate about digital learning, OER, students as instructional designers, and pedagogy.